Stray bears more of a holiday worry than lost tech

Diane King

Despite today’s youngsters being part of the ‘iPad generation’, forgetting a child’s favourite teddy or comforter is the number one cause of holiday headaches for almost half of British families.

A study conducted by the website Child Friendly Villas Direct found that 45 per cent of holidaymakers considered ‘teddy tantrums’ to be the number one cause of holiday headaches.

Perhaps, surprisingly, stray bears ranked higher than their modern tech counterparts in the list of family holiday essentials, with only 40 per cent of parents saying forgetting a tablet device or mobile phone would cause them a holiday headache, and just five per cent saying forgetting a favourite DVD would cause friction.

And with one in three holidaymakers booking their summer getaway during January, Child Friendly Villas Direct is providing a ‘VIBs’ service (very important bears) to return any special furry friends left at one of the villas free of charge.

Sarah Davies founded the company after planning a family villa holiday in Spain and, after struggling to find the information they needed, arrived to find it was not suitable for a young family.

She said:“With Child Friendly Villas Direct we wanted to create a user-friendly place where busy parents can quickly discover their perfect family villa holiday, linking them directly with independent villa agents and managers to access the most cost effective deals available.”